Wheatland Newspaper Articles

December 19, 1923. Newspaper unknown, possibly Wheatland Gazette

FORTY YEARS OF SERVICE.

            A business that is successfully carried on for forty years under the same management, and making steady increases each succeeding year, can be safely considered solid, and worthy of complete confidence.

            Wheatland has such a business, and many of our citizens and neighbors throughout the surrounding country have watched it steady climb from its start in 1883 to its present prosperous condition.  During these years of service this institution has, at some time or another, been of material persona benefit to a great majority of the community residents, as well as a great and constant benefit to the town and it surroundings.

            The institution in mind is the present banking house of the First Trust & Savings Bank, which is completing its fortieth business year, under the same management

            Established in 1883 as a private bank, by Ludwig Homrighausen, and was styled the Ludwig Homrighausen Bank, so continuing until 1886 when it changed to John Guenther & Son’s Bank.  The business was carried on under this name until 1910, when it was converted into a state bank and incorporated under the name, German Trust & Saving Bank.  The management remaining in the hands of Guenther and sons.  In 1917 the name was changed to the First Trust & Savings Bank, as we find it today, with the same management, giving the same efficient and reliable service its patrons have been accustomed to since the Guenthers first began their banking service forty years ago.

            The business was started as an accommodation to the patrons of Henry Guenther, druggist, and he has been serving the public in an official capacity ever since, and at present is president, a position he has held for a number of years.

            From desk room in the drugstore, and a corner in the money chest of the store safe, has grown the modern bank building, equipped with fire-proof vaults, safety deposit boxes, a most secure safe, protected by time-locks, vault doors, and other safety devices- a beautiful and complete home for the business where patrons are always welcome, and courteous treatment accorded them.  Advice is free and dependable.

            It’s business has grown in proportion to its other growths and at present is a source of pride to its managers, directors, stockholders, entire office force, patrons and the public.

            It is a pleasure to join the friends of the bank and the worthy management, in congratulations upon their forty year record, and wish then still further success.

February 3, 193?. Newspaper unknown, possibly Wheatland Gazette.

A WISE COMMUNITY.

            Wheatland can well claim to have perfectly wise and sane community of sound-thinking people-people with confidence and trust in each other are in their local institutions.

            THE GREATEST EVIDENCE OF THAT FACT WAS DEMONSTRATED LAST Friday when the First Trust & Savings Bank of this place reopened after the declared two-weeks holiday, with over 96 percent of its depositors signing the required agreements, others from a distance still to be heard from, and mutual agreement with a few who was wholly in favor of the plan, but didn’t care to sign papers to that effect.

            All this in spite of the fact that the weather and bad roads prevented personal visits to some of the deposit patrons who were unable to come into the bank.

            In summing up the ban situation here can only have this indisputable fact driven home to them-this bank has the confidence of the people and they have the confidence of their bank.

            With the exception of the always inevitable few, no one became alarmed or unduly excited because of the adoption of the holiday plan. It was necessary business for the bank and as such, its depositors at once agreed that it was also their business.  In signing the agreements each depositor, in a way, became a stock-holder, ready to defend their own individual interests in the business of retaining their own bank under their own supervision, rather than submitting it to the jurisdiction of the state banking department.  One example of that in the community has been enough.

            This article has been written with out the request or the knowledge of any of the officials of the First Trust & Savings bank, so we are going to add just one more statement that is a fact that we are all proud of.  The name of “Guenther” connected with Wheatland banking has always stood for the soundest, most conservative banking policies, and behind that name is an unbroken record of years of straight, clean, banking principles.  Linked with Henry Guenther are a group of men in this vicinity whose honesty and integrity cannot be truthfully questioned.  And there is your basis for CONFIDENCE.

            Now, we’re all set to go.  We have our own bank, backed by our own people, ready to meet emergencies, and from now on there will be no wavering even of the few.  Some who have no money whatever in the home bank are prone to do the loudest yapping, but they are kidding nobody except themselves.  The wise ones are the fortunate ones-and this community which has a splendid majority of that trust.